Dave Bradley

Hardware Product Development @Amazon @Lab126 | @CalPoly | @SantaClaraUniv | @Stanford | ex #Apple | ex #Flextronics | 3 exits | #AR #VR | #SiliconValley

[david friedberg @friedberg]

America's Biggest Mistake?
A portion of every American's paycheck is deposited into the Social Security trust fund (OASI), which is then invested to create returns that aim to support long-term retirement payments.

Since 1941, OASI has ONLY invested in US treasuries, averaging an annual return of just 4.8%. Meanwhile the S&P500 has been compounding returns at 10.5% per year.

If instead of buying treasuries, OASI bought the S&P500 index starting in 1971 (the year the US went off the gold standard), it would have a $15.1T balance today and Americans would all share ownership of ~1/3 of America's best companies, likely supporting increased retirement benefits, lowering taxes, and reducing Federal debt levels while being the world's largest sovereign wealth fund.

Instead, OASI has a $2.7T balance today and is projected to go bankrupt in 2032, as retirement benefits swell while annual returns on US treasuries held by OASI have shrunk to <3% per year recently.

Many economic inequities in America can be traced back to this structural mistake. By not investing OASI in equities, only privileged Americans with private pensions, 401(k)s, IRAs, and other investment retirement accounts have benefited from the marvel of American capitalism, leaving behind the tens of millions of Americans who had no choice but to rely on Social Security and were left reliant on low-yielding US treasuries.

It is not too late to change. Social Security can still pivot to an equity-driven investment model, driving future balance sheet growth, providing investment capital to American businesses, reducing the dependence on Federal taxes and money-printing, and giving all Americans ownership in America's best businesses.

Rather than create a new sovereign wealth fund, while ignoring the imminent failure of Social Security, legislators can restructure Social Security. By adding ~$500B directly to OASI, investing the entire balance in the S&P 500, and assuming future annual returns of ~10.5%, OASI will grow while also meeting all future retirement obligations, rather than shrink away into insolvency.

The longer we wait to fix Social Security, the more expensive it will become... shifting to an equity-driven investment model now could ensure its long-term viability, address economic inequities across the US, create the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, and give every American ownership and participation in the rewards of American capitalism.

[Dave Bradley @mrdavebradley]

@Coach_Sanford2 Did Boise practice their false starts for this game? Doing pretty well in that area

[Thunder Parley @ThunderParley]

Now that California finally certified election results Friday after 5 weeks, I dove into the 67 page PDF and found some interesting stats between November 2020 and last month's election. Some were really eye popping... 🧵/1

[Dave Bradley @mrdavebradley]

@chamath When I want a unique experience and I don’t mind paying twice as much and taking twice as long as @Uber (with the possibility of getting stuck at an intersection for an hour because the humans know they can cut in front of the kind patient driverless car) then I take @Waymo.

[Chamath Palihapitiya @chamath]

Cut State Regulations by 90%
Replace DMV with an App
Institute School Choice
Eliminate Income Tax, Replace with a Consumption Tax
Double Police and Enforce the Law

CA's best and brightest are leaving the state in droves - this would get them back.

Make California Great Again!

[The All-In Podcast @theallinpod]

Trump's Mandate: An Extinction-Level Event for Federal Bureaucracy

@friedberg breaks it down:

"There's this thing that happens in biology called evolution. And a lot of people think evolution is this continuous process, but it's not."

"Evolution is this process by which there is some significant growth for a period of time, and then there is an extinction event or an external force that causes what ultimately becomes what's called punctuated equilibrium."

"So the whole system resets, and then the healthier, stronger species survive and they grow and they persist."

"If you look at federal spending over the last couple of decades, I would argue that many of the agencies, much of the bureaucracy, many of the jobs created, many of the spending programs can kind of be viewed as species within this ecosystem that have grown a lot over the last few decades."

"And I think what Trump's mandate was by the people was to be kind of the extinction event."

"This is going to bring in the most disruptive force that federal agencies have ever seen."

"We cannot continue the way we have been with respect to federal spending, bureaucracy, and inefficiency in the federal government, and so something has to happen."

"And if this is the path by which this gets resolved, in the limited window that's in front of this particular administration, which is probably two years, maybe four, maybe this is what has to happen."

cc: @elonmusk @VivekGRamaswamy @DOGE

[Dave Bradley @mrdavebradley]

@netflix @MikeTyson @jakepaul @MostVpromotions Epic fail

[hagaetc @hagaetc]

So I tried to build a tech company from Norway and here’s what happened:

1. Two years of building without almost any money/funding, better part of a year without salary
2. Raise VC and become one of Norway’s first unicorns
3. Face unrealized gains wealth tax bill of many x my annual net salary. ofc the company is loss making and all the investors have preference shares so I can’t take out any money.
4. Call out publicly that this does not make sense. Independent of level, taxation needs to happen when you actually make money.
5. I move to Switzerland because no politician cares/listens.
6. I still don’t get any tangible and sensible answers to my criticism of unrealized gains tax, BUT I do get put up on the “wall of shame” at the socialist parties offices…

I’m Norwegian and I love Norway but the socialist politicians are taking the country down a dark path. It’s a real life Atlas Shrugged.

[Chief Nerd @TheChiefNerd]

Rob Baron Says Elon Musk Will Bring the Efficiency of Tesla & SpaceX to the U.S. Government

“The government wanted to send people back and forth to the International Space Station…So they gave two contracts — one to Boeing for $4.3B and a year later to SpaceX for $2.1B. SpaceX has since been back and forth 40 times. Boeing got there once and they couldn’t get their guys back. We had to go rescue them…Get rid of cost-plus contracts.”

@elonmusk

[Dave Bradley @mrdavebradley]

I got to video the famous #Bitcoin Jesus while we promoted #SafeMoon in #Sundance UT.

[Scott X @scottycoin]

Shit coin. When we goin to tip only in SafeMoon ???

[Dave Bradley @mrdavebradley]

Well done #team! Now I can finally admit to my kids that I made a #robot.
#MeetAstro is the ~35th product #launch of my career and one of the most satisfying...
https://t.co/6QWIaIX3SB

[Andy Jassy @ajassy]

Congrats to the Amazon Devices team on the array of amazing products announced today! And, thx for sneak peek on Astro…looking forward to customers getting a chance to benefit from a totally new kind of home robot.

[Dave Bradley @mrdavebradley]

Second PC purchase from @NZXT and second that arrived not working.. at least return process is ok

[Dave Bradley @mrdavebradley]

@gypsyjab yup, already done

[Dave Bradley @mrdavebradley]

Ferry from #Shenzhen to Zhuhai. #productdesign #IOT #AR #VR #Manufacturing

[Mike Quindazzi @MikeQuindazzi]

#IoT is positioned at the center of 8 #emergingtechnologies essential to the enterprise. {#3DP #AI #AR #Blockchain #Drones #Robotics #VR}

[Chris Maddern @chrismaddern]

Didn't exist in 2006:

iPhone
iPad
Kindle
Uber
Airbnb
Android
Oculus
Spotify
Nest
Stripe
Square
Instagram
Slack
Spotify
Snapchat

[Evan Kirstel #B2B #TechFluencer @EvanKirstel]

#IoT opportunities for #SantaClaus by @DonSheppard on @itworldca https://t.co/cDrfq0RZaI

[Dave Bradley @mrdavebradley]

"Partners need to juggle multiple technologies and adopt new skill sets to successfully deploy #IoT solutions."
https://t.co/LtPpygQ1Wq

[tipatat @tipatat]

"make something strong enough and people will overcome" Avg session length of @EVEValkyrie is 45min. Some play 8hrs a day for a solid week!